“Good Food” visits Catalina Sea Ranch

One of AltaSea’s first clients, shellfish aqua-farmer Catalina Sea Ranch, got some welcome attention this week from “Good Food,” the smart show about all things edible from public-radio giant KCRW-FM.

Reporter Abbie Fentress Swanson visited Catalina Sea Ranch’s headquarters on the AltaSea wharf in the Port of Los Angeles and also rode out to the spot in federal waters off the Palos Verdes Peninsula where the company raises millions of Mediterranean mussels. Such mussels are widely distributed in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Nonetheless, the mussels you may eat in a United States restaurant largely have been shipped from providers on Prince Edward Island in Canada, 3,500 miles from Los Angeles and the source of 35 million pounds of mussel imports annually.

Now, said CEO Phil Cruver said, Los Angeles restaurants are buying Catalina Sea Ranch’s larger, fresher mussels. The planet benefits too. Not only are these mussels from a local, sustainable source, so they’re not being shipped across the continent, mussels provide more protein than beef with no carbon emissions (mussels, as an ocean-based food, actually help absorb carbon).

Catalina Sea Ranch is one example of how AltaSea is nurturing innovative, sustainable and smart ocean-focused companies as part of our broader mission to transform one of the oldest parts of the Port of Los Angeles into a thriving center for scientific research, STEM-based education and business incubation. To hear all of Fentress Swanson’s piece, go here for a listen.